George Leonard Reakes JP (31 July 1889 – 15 April 1961) was a British politician. Born in

Bath, Somerset Bath () is a city in the Bath and North East Somerset unitary area in the county of Somerset, England, known for and named after its Roman-built baths. At the 2021 Census, the population was 101,557. Bath is in the valley of the River Avon, ...

, he became Mayor of

Wallasey Wallasey () is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, in Merseyside, England; until 1974, it was part of the historic county of Cheshire. It is situated at the mouth of the River Mersey, at the north-eastern corner of the Wirral Pe ...

and later Member of Parliament (MP). Reakes entered local politics while working as a journalist for a group of Cheshire newspapers. He became Mayor of Wallasey in 1937–1938. He resigned from the Labour Party on the question of rearmament immediately prior to the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. In 1942, he left his job in postal censorship to contest the

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election (Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election used to f ...

as an Independent and was elected, defeating the National Government candidate John Pennington by 6,012 votes. He said of his victory, "It is a victory for Churchill and our enemies will now know that Wallasey wants a vigorous prosecution of the war with a fight to the finish. The voters are dissatisfied with party politics."''Time'', 11 May 1942, ''Daily Mirror'', 1 May 1942 He tried to hold the seat at the 1945 general election but was defeated by the

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...

Ernest Marples Alfred Ernest Marples, Baron Marples, (9 December 1907 – 6 July 1978) was a British Conservative politician who served as Postmaster General (1957–1959) and Minister of Transport (1959–1964). As Postmaster General, he oversaw the introdu ...

. Reakes was a magistrate for nearly twenty years and later became chairman of the Wallasey Juvenile Court. In 1956, he published his autobiography, ''Man of the Mersey''.

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Reakes, George Leonard 1889 births 1961 deaths UK MPs 1935–1945 Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies Independent members of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom People from Wallasey Mayors of places in Merseyside People from Bath, Somerset